In an electrifying fourth quarter that involved five Lexington turnovers and 22 points, the Rockdale Tigers avenged last season’s loss to the Eagles with a 29-27 victory.
“We thrive in those kind of situations around here,” said Jeff Miller, Rockdale High School head football coach and athletic director. “It’s kind of the smell of the blood, when it’s there, we attack. We ride the momentum wave and hop on and go. It’s fun to watch. You can feel the electricity on the sidelines. There was some nervousness. You can see it in their eyes. The pep in their step was a whole lot quicker.”
The Tiger defense made three interceptions and forced two fumbles during Thursday’s “Gold Out” game held at Taylor High School Stadium. The most notable was Will Storey’s interception of Eagles freshman quarterback Sheldon Springer in the final quarter of the game.
“(The turnovers) allowed us to play our game on our end of the field,” Miller said. “We didn’t capitalize on all of them, but it certainly gave us the opportunity. We ran a lot more plays than they did. Every time you have the ball, two things happen: It keeps the ball out of their hands. It gives you more opportunity to put more points on the board.”
Rockdale got off to a slow start, trailing 14-0 in the first half.
“We didn’t really make any adjustments,” Miller said. “We challenged (Lexington) to play better.”
Eagle star running back Ja’Kobe Cooper scored both of Lexington’s two touchdowns in the first quarter.
“Our intention was to make them beat us by throwing the ball. Put enough people in the box to contain him,” Miller said of Cooper. “He’s really special and one of the best we’ll see this year. If they could throw it well enough to beat us, we’d have to live with that. We had to stop him, because he just killed us last time.”
In last year’s 38-7 loss to the Eagles, Rockdale’s defense allowed Cooper 201 yards. This year the Tigers contained him to 98 yards.
The momentum changed on the Tigers sideline when junior running back Brandon Hernandez broke free for a 17-yard touchdown run to the right side of the field, in the fourth quarter. Senior kicker Luis Iruegas missed the extra point, and the Tigers were down 14-13 with more than ten minutes to play.
The RHS defensive linemen stopped the Eagles backfield, which setup a 19-yard field goal by Iruegas and gave the Tigers the lead for the first time 16-14.
The Eagles took it back four minutes later when Cooper broke free from the Tiger defense for a 57-yard touchdown run on a short pass from Springer. Senior kicker Stephen Gamm’s extra point failed, making the score 20-16.
One play later, senior tight end Jackson Perry broke away from defenders on a short pass from Jace Robinson for a 61-yard touchdown. Iruegas made the kick and the Tigers reclaimed the lead 23-20.
Three minutes later Storey’s interception led to a 34-yard touchdown run by sophomore running back Cam’Ron Valdez. The extra point by Iruegas failed, and the Tigers were up 29-20 with a 1:27 left in the game.
The Eagles scored on a 14-yard pass from Springer to senior wide receiver Garrett Stamport. Gamm made the extra point to make the score 29-27. Rockdale held on to the lead for the remainder of the game.
“If you think about it, we’ve been in some fast, crazy scoring situations the last three or four years,” Miller said. “There’s been several, the last two Cameron games were like that. Malakoff, we scored three or four really quickly.”
Austin–RHS concludes its pre-district play Friday, Sept. 21, at 7:30p.m. against the Hyde Park Panthers at the Quarries Sports Complex in Austin.
“(Hyde Park) is very disciplined, “ said Miller. “They have some really good players, and that quarterback is special.”
Panther senior quarterback Ben Ballard has passed for 643 yards in the first three games of this season.
“We have to put enough pressure on him to put him in a bind,” Miller said.
RHS 29, LHS 27
RHS LHS
21 First Downs 15 48-213 Rushing 38-184 16-3-0 Passing 7-20-3 189 Passing yards 148 402 Total yards 332 1-1 Fumbles 2-2 5-187 Punts 6-196 2-10 Penalities 8-75
Score by quarters RHS 0 7 0 22 —29 LHS 7 7 0 13 —27
Scoring summary
First quarter Lexington-Jarred Kerr 10 run (Stephen Gamm kick) 12:00
Second quarter Lexington-Ja’Kobe Cooper 35 run (Gamm kick) 12:00 Rockdale-Cam’Ron Valdez 2 run (Luis Iruegas kick) 5:32
Fourth quarter Rockdale-Brandon Hernandez 17 run (kick failed) 10:48 Rockdale-Iruegas 19 PAT 9:25 Lexington-Cooper 57 pass from Sheldon Springer (kick failed) 5:41 Rockdale-Jackson Perry 61 pass from Jace Robinson (Iruegas kick) 5:24 Rockdale-Valdez 34 run (kick failed) 1:27 Lexington-Garrett Stamport 14 pass from Springer (Gamm kick) 1:09
RHS individual leaders Rushing: Valdez 24-123; Kesean Raven 8-48l Hernandez 8-25; Robinson 1-18; Ross Loth 4-0; Perry 3- -1; Passing: Robinson 11-22-157, 1 TD; Loth 5-8-32. Receiving: Quentin Hughes 6-63; Perry 1-61; Loth 4-33; Levi Baggerly 1-20; Landon Towns 1-10; Raven 2-0
10-3A-1 STANDINGS
Team Season District
W-L W-L Yoe 2-0 0-0 Rockdale 2-1 0-0 Troy 2-1 0-0 Jarrell 1-2 0-0 Lago Vista 1-2 0-0 New Tech 1-2 0-0 Academy 0-3 0-0
Last week: Cameron Yoe 41, Gatesville 21; Troy 35, Robinson 28; Riesel 44, Jarrell 35; Hemp-stead 25, Little River Academy 17; Lago Vista 30, Comfort 14; Crocket 49, Manor New Tech 8. This week: Giddings at Cameron Yoe; Hillsboro at Troy; Jarrell at Rosebud-Lott; Lago Vista at Llano; Burnet at Manor New Tech; Florence at Little River Academy.
RHS JV 16, LHS 0
The Rockdale junior varsity football team shut out Lexington 16-0 with a strong defense on Wednesday, Sept. 12 in Lexington.
“The entire defense stood out, not allowing any scoring and recovering four fumbles,” Coach David Monroe said.
In the first quarter, Chase Mayfield ran 50 yards for the Tigers first touchdown. With a missed extra point, the Tigers were up 6-0.
In the second quarter, the Tigers defense tackled an Eagle running back into the end zone for a two-point safety to make the score 8-0.
Rockdale held its lead through the third quarter, with no scoring. In the fourth quarter, Mayfield secured the Tigers lead with a five-yard touchdown run, scoring his second touchdown of the game. Mayfield also completed the two-point conversion right after to put the Tigers up 16-0.
Mayfield, along with Tucker Prestridge and the entire offensive line were the standouts on offense, said Monroe. Centers Jake Hasselbach and Alex Ellison made perfect snaps, despite the rainy and muddy conditions, Monroe said.
The Rockdale Tigers play their next game on Thursday, Sept. 20 in Austin against the Hyde Park Panthers at Quarries Sports Complex in Austin. Kickoff will begin at 6:30.
Score by quarters
RHS 6 2 0 8 —16 LHS 0 0 0 0 —0
Scoring summary
First quarter
Rockdale-Chase Mayfield 50 run (run failed)
Second quarter
Rockdale-safety
Fourth quarter
Rockdale-Mayfield 5 run (Mayfield run)
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